Beagle lost for 5 years, found 850 miles away

Source: Agencies  |   2008-7-16  |     ONLINE EDITION

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ROCCO, a beagle that strayed from a New York City yard five years ago, has been reunited with his owners -- after being found 850 miles (1,370 kilometers) away in Georgia.

Randy Durrence, the supervisor at the Liberty County Animal Control in Hinseville, Georgia, told the New York Post that someone dropped off the pooch on July 5. A microchip embedded under Rocco's skin helped trace him to his family in New York -- Jorge and Cristina Villacis.

The couple's daughter, Natalie, who was 5 years old when Rocco disappeared, was ecstatic.

She told the Post: "I cried hysterically -- just like I did when they told me he was lost. I felt like I was in a dream."

Durrence says the shelter reunites many families with their pets but "it's unheard of" after so many years.

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